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List Price: $39.99 | | Label: Miramax Home Entertainment
Salesrank: 43301
Released: July 13, 2004 |
| Our Price: $16.87 |
| Used Price: $12.93 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Miramax Home Entertainment along with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Chris Moore present PROJECT GREENLIGHT ... a unique, behind-the-scenes look at the Hollywood filmmaking process that documents all the hurdles and pitfalls encountered by first-time filmmakers as they bring their labor of love to the big screen! This special three-disc collection includes the complete second season of the acclaimed HBO series, extensive bonus material, and the finished theatrically released project THE BATTLE OF SHAKER HEIGHTS -- starring Shia LaBeouf and Amy Smart.
Description of Project Greenlight 2 (The Complete Second Series Plus Film The Battle of Shaker Heights):
Anyone contemplating a career as a screenwriter or film director--or anyone who simply wonders how movies get made--would do well to watch Project Greenlight 2 from beginning to end. The second season of the HBO reality series, co-created by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and producer Alex Keledjian, follows the creation of Miramax feature The Battle of Shaker Heights from unknown screenplay through various levels of Greenlight competition to first-run theatrical feature with a big, Hollywood premiere. The road to completion, however, runs through hell many times over. Shaker Heights writer Erica Beeney, having survived Greenlight's script contest and intimidating meetings with Affleck, Damon, and various producers and executives from Miramax and elsewhere, is matched with the directing team of Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin, who have undergone similar trials. With little time to celebrate, the winners moves into production offices in Los Angeles and confront a stark reality: A lot of people are involved in getting a movie made, and very often a writer or director is just one voice among many.
The most interesting backstage dramas in the series take place during pre-production for Shaker Heights, when casting proves to be a nightmare, time runs short, and Miramax starts insisting that Potelle and Rankin take the actors they're told to take. Part of the problem is that the team, new to the big leagues, often look like startled deer. They don't know how to talk to stars or make decisions quickly, they question the need for vital crew members, and they don't understand that in the absence of leadership a panicked studio will take over. Still, everyone gets through intact, and after a couple of episodes detailing Shaker Heights' actual shoot (with stars Shia LaBeouf, Kathleen Quinlan, William Sadler, and Amy Smart), the editing and marketing processes become a new kind of misery, threatening to destroy the film and end careers. It's all very engrossing, and its good to have a DVD of the highly enjoyable The Battle of Shaker Heights (which comes with this set and offers a "jump-to" feature linking select scenes to Project Greenlight background info) to prove, in the end, that all that matters are results. --Tom Keogh
Project Greenlight 2 (The Complete Second Series Plus Film The Battle of Shaker Heights) Reviews:
Entertaining, but Also Discouraging 
2009-11-01 - Project Greenlight season two was very entertaining, unlike the movie that resulted from it. I think it is a wonderful idea, and applaud Ben And Matt for sponsoring it. Bottom line, the problem with the project results may be the frustrating process.
What I believe from watching the DVDs was that Project Greenlight and Miramax need to choose the director(s) and then let him/her/them have a large part in selecting the script. The group selecting the script now, including Ben and Matt, either do not know how to choose a good script, or have too much politics involved in the process. After watching the comments on the scripts, you still have no idea what they will ultimately pick.
In my opinion, the "Battle of Shaker Heights" was a lame story, and had no hope of making a profit regardless of who directed it, because there was nothing novel about it on top of being a very contrived (unrealistic) plot. The casting process also was a political process driven by Miramax which seemed to almost force actors on the directors, but even great actors cannot fix a story that is not very interesting, funny, or believable.
If the directors were chosen and given a large input into the script selection process, this could be a huge step forward in the quality of the project. I felt it was unfair for the directors to have to produce a script that really had nothing new to offer other than a showcase for the actor Shia.
It somewhat killed my desire to compete in Project Greenlight again, but the support by Chris Moore and others gives great insight to the difficulties and challenges in making a low budget movie even with the best crew and equipment. I hope they have more financial success in the future and let the directors have more input into the script in the future. The director does not have to be the writer, which may have been a season 3 mistake, but at least be in tune with the script chosen.
Shia Fan 
2009-05-02 - This is a must have if you like Mr. LaBeouf. He wasn't hot back then (cute, I'll give you), but his personality shines through loud and clear, and sweet and funny.
Green Light gives new insight into Hollywood makes movies, the movie? well....
2008-02-02 - First let me say I was disappointed in the show which was project Greenlight 1, but liked the movie by the winning writer/director Pete Jones, STOLEN SUMMER very much. I would watch STOLEN SUMMER again. The show, on the other hand, with what seemed to me phony senseless bickering between producers Jeff Balis and Chris Moore seemed to lack the insight into the movie making I would have liked. Come on, Chris Moore fussing because Jeff and Pete postponed the lake swim because the water was too cold for the child stars, made Moore look like an idiot. And made careful thinking about what you'll need to get the movie done seem bad. I do want to point out that Jones went on to make other movies.
Project Greenlight 2, was an inversion. I loved the show, and found the movie, BATTLE OF SHAKER HEIGHTS lacking.
Now I have made a feature film. I made my feature KNAPTID for $6,000 and wrote about how in my How to Make a Low-Budget Digital Movie short. Even though I had some bad actors I think Knaptid--4 Days After The First Abduction is a better movie than BATTLE OF SHAKER HEIGHTS. So my comments here are those of an experienced low-budget filmmaker.
Project Greenlight 2 does give you some real insight into how a Hollywood film is made, and what all happens. The way in which the parent company tried to change the movie after it went before a test audience is a lesson by itself for the would-be filmmaker. The casting problems which I experienced myself--though not with stars, struck home, and the list goes on. What might really be of value to the independent filmmaker here is watching the problems develop.
Greenlight 2 makes producers Balis and Moore look good, and the winning directors look like idiots, while the writer, Erica Beeney is treated sympathetically. The question is: did the show treat Potelle and Rankin fairly or just make them look bad? (One does wonder after watching the show if the winner had been the director candidate who said she would only make SHAKER HEIGHTS or the one who actually did the best job on his directorial sample, the one with the crazy person in the psych ward, whether the end product would have been better. )
How bad are the directors? Here is an example. We see them filming at a church. They need the church for outside shots of Shia LaBeouf as Kelly at his best friend's sister's (Amy Smart) wedding. So what do the directors do. They spend way to much time filming LaBeouf in a Limo talking to Smart in a scene they never get right, and then have to set up lights to fake daylight in a scene that has to be outdoors. In the final movie there is a shot of LaBeouf riding away from the church before the daytime service starts, while cars on the street have their headlights on because it is actually dusk. They only had the church for a day. LaBeouf did okay, but Smart never got the 'in limo scene' right. We never get the idea that she is being confronted just before her wedding by a guy she may have made love to while on the outs with her fiance. (Want to see the surprised bride done right watch THE GRADUATE.) The thing is there was no background in focus, so they could have shot the 'in the limo shot' anywhere after spending a little time directing Smart.
When the movie making was beginning, I can't believe the directors didn't ask the casting director right up front 'who can we reasonably get? LaBeouf was a bad choice here for example. LaBeouf may be great in comedy, but he did not always deliver here. Example, the bully.
The bully picks on LaBeouf because LaBeouf harasses the bully's father who is a history teacher. But the bully's demeanor and LaBeouf's is cartoonish. The fact that the bully has motive to hate LaBeouf is important as LaBeouf later regrets the trick he pulls on the bully. The interaction of the two characters comprise some of the worst, most wooden acting in the movie. In fact, LaBeouf barely seems bothered by the bully, emotionally detached.
Speaking of emotion to really show it in a movie you need close-ups. This movie seems shot entirely in medium shots. In fact, one extreme close up is of a tiny doll held by LaBeouf's best friend's father. The problem is instead of a real character the friend's father is a caricature.
Directing the actors: Didn't these people ever rehearse? Kathleen Quinlan does this scene that ends where her saying 'because' she loves her husband. This is an emotional scene yet she doesn't seem real because she goes from smiling to serious without really being the character.
Some of the problems could be placed on Beeney the writer. But if you watch the show you'll see the directors tried to rewrite her. And the studio heads redid the movie edit. So who is to blame for some of the movie's problems is up in the air, for example: Why LaBeouf hates his father is not revealed until the end of the movie. Meanwhile we go through the movie finding his 'I hate you Dad' attitude unbelievable enough to make him unsympathetic.
Here the directors made mistakes, the writer may have, the studio heads obviously did, and so what was in Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's heads when they actually said the fiasco that was THE BATTLE OF SHAKER HEIGHTS was better than STOLEN SUMMER.
(By the way: The directors and the writer here have not gone on as Pete Jones has. At the time of this writing the SHAKER directing gang has one movie of their own they are working on. Beeney has no further credits. Pete Jones seems to have done a few things.)
This all makes for an educating show. They show these guys making mistakes people can learn from. So enjoy the show, endure the movie and learn.
NICE SERIES FOR A [...] MOVIE.
2006-06-28 - As with the first PROJECT GREENLIGHT the series is great but the movie produced by the series is a peice of [...]. I loved both seasons of PGL but the second was more insteresting. I liked the bonus section with the submitted films much better than the SHAKER HEIGHTS film. There's a film maker named OTTING who made a creepy film about a man with a cross in a mental hospital. I thought that film rocked. If I had been the judge they would have had him as the film maker instead the two guys they picked and the screenplay would have been PRISONER which was written by the weird guy who sat on a couch for five days and did nothing but stare. I don't know anything about the PRISONER script but I figure if the guy's that strange then the screenplay was probably much better than shaker heights. I fill bad saying that the movie sucked because the girl who wrote it seemed nice but she was a bit over emotional. What's funny is they finally made a descent movie with a great director in PGL3 (FEAST with JOHN G.) and PGL3 was the best of the three seasons and it hasn't been released. It almost makes me think that PGL was a Hollywood conspiracy meant to make it look to the rest of the world like people outside of the Hollywood system could only make crappy movies. When some guy showed up and made a good film they didn't release it.
Project Greenlight 2
2005-07-24 - I must say that the second season of Project Greenlight was some of the most engrossing viewing I've enjoyed in years.I'm not a person who watches much television at all so for me to actually purchase the dvd set is saying much.
As an aspiring filmmaker I felt this dvd set was the next best thing to an actual internship.A really educational and insp
iring television series.
I wasn't crazy about the film and thought it was actually mediocre.I don't blame the directors for this and if you watch the episodes detailing the day to day process you'll understand why.
I can't recommend this product highly enough.A must for aspiring filmmakers.
